>> brian: if you have to run from the tv, run to the radio. >> steve: we're going to do the after the show show. janis dean, love machine today, joins us. see you there. story on a international figure. he sprinted to fame doing what no one thought was possible. now the olympic star known as the "blade runner", who won the hearts and minds of the world by just competing on the world stage, a man born without legs has been charged with the murder of his model girlfriend. a breaking story that is unfolding by the hour. good morning, everybody, i'm bill hemmer if you're just waking up. welcome to "america's newsroom". martha: good morning everybody. i'm martha maccallum. what a story this is. oscar pistorius has been released from police custody after his girlfriend was shot to in his mansion.

that happened in early morning hours. bill: it may have been a case of valentine's day surprise gone wrong inside his home. after police conducted an initial investigation inside his mansion he was officially charged. elizabeth prann is working through details now. she is live in our new york newsroom. good morning to you, elizabeth. what do we know so far? >> reporter: good morn the we know police arrested the olympic star, oscar pistorius after they found a woman dead in his south african home. police arrived after receiving a call there had been a shooting, police reports he may have mistaken the victim. reva steenkamp as an intruder and shot her. >> media reports of an alleged break-in or the young lady was allegedly mistaken to be a burglar. our investigation is still own going. we're not sure where this report came from. it doesn't come from the south african police service. our detectives have been on

the scene. >> reporter: steenkamp a model and victims' rights advocate planned to surprise her boyfriend. they acknowledged a history of domestic related phone calls from the house in the past. stats come wild by the united nations show south africa has the second highest rate of shooting deaths in the world and a high rate of assaults an robbery. miss tore you -- pistorius's home is in a secure area of pretoria it is common for people to own their own firearms. bill: he was the national figure in that country. >> reporter: absolutely. the media is all over the story. the pistorius is an olympic star and amputee runner. he made history last year in the summer games as the first am amputee to compete in the olympics. so-called "blade runner" campaigned for year to be able to compete against able-bodied athletes n 2012 his work paid off and he was cleared to compete with the

world's top athletes. bill: thank you, elizabeth brand is working on the latest and we're in touch with folks in south africa. thank you for leading our coverage today. martha: what an incredible steer that is. what a road for him to win the right to compete in the olympic games. back in the january 2008 an international sports body ruled that pistorius was ineligible to compete in events including the olympics because of his blades but in may of that year it all changed for him. an arbiter ruled in his favor. so-called fastest man on no legs was free to compete in the olympics last summer. here is pistorius after his landmark legal victory. >> we found out in december we were ruled to, it was very difficult time the last couple months but, you know, now so that it has come up and once again i'm in

relief. we have an opportunity to once again participate in the olympics in 2000 eight. martha: his story captivated so many people. although he failed to make the games in that year in 2008 his luck turned for the london games four years later. bill: he made history in the games in london, making it to the semifinals in the 400 meters. he was that close to a medal competing on his country's relay team. his father and family at that time in london shared in his glorious moment. >> to now stand on the pinnacle of where you strifed and you hoped and dreamt to be, that is an amazing emotional feeling for him and i feel, i feel compassion and pride. i mean it's phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal.

really, to see him coming second in the heat in the olympics, amazing. bill: certainly was. that was the moment in august this past summer, now pistorius was chosen to carry the south african flag in the closing ceremony at the games and after london he competed in the paraolympics. part of the investigation now goes to apparently people, perhaps neighbors, maybe even friend, who had heard something earlier in the night and heard something around the shooting at 3:00 in the morning. they are being interviewed by police. martha: he has been released as we said for now. the investigation continues. we'll bring you all the latest as we get more information. in the meantime this story that was around all week. after days stranded at sea, passengers aboard the crippled carnival cruise ship are set to pull into dock today. i bet they're feeling really happy about that. they will end up in mobile, alabama, not where they were supposed to originally land up. but boy, it's land and they're happy to get on it

after they have been in deplorable conditions last couple days. they had limited access to food. nice way of putting it. sound like a diet of onion sandwiches and lack of bathrooms. we have gross details but we'll leave that for today. there was a fire on board sunday. that was the initial problem. it took out the ship's propulsion system. left it unable to sail without power, without sewage and air-conditioning on the ship. the passengers will get a free refund and discounts on future cruises which you can imagine they're excited to sign up for at this point. we'll have more later on this. a bus ride. bill: come on home. martha: all right. so let's get a little look at the economy this morning because we just got new numbers out moments ago, the newest snapshot on the jobs situation. new unemployment claims fell by 27,000. we get them every thursday morning. there is the new number. 41,000, a little lower than people were expecting -- 341,000. that is step in the right direction but some states

did not get their data in on time and that number could change. what does it mean for the economy and the state of our union which we heard about from the president this week. stuart varney has been assessing the state of our union, host of "varney & company" on the fox business network. good morning, stuart. what do you make of this number today? >> before we start celebrating today's number let's put it into the overall focus where our economy is. 341,000, even if it is a little strange because some states have not reported that is still a very high number. now put it in context. we're not spending much money. retail sales negligible growth. the jobless rate is rising. the overall economy is contracting. confidence at a new low level. taxes have gone up and as of this morning, the price of gasoline has gone up to 362 for regular. that is the highest price ever for a gallon of regular gas in the month of february. you add it up together and focus on the true state of our economy a lot of people

are getting very nervous. martha: stuart, the president laid out to a great extent what his solution is to turning the economy around the other night, right? >> he did and his solution is essentially spend more government money. he unveiled a long list of new spending programs. he called them investments but they are really spending government money, spend that money and that's the way he thinks we'll get this economy back into gear and to start growing again. but his solution basically, spend more bought money. martha: all right. stuart, thank you very much for that this morning. let's get a look at some other things that are impacting our economy this morning. go over to bill. bill: you think about the drag on the economy when this happens, martha. what we've done here, we've taken the national average last year at this time, starting on the 1st of january, up to mid-february where we are today, february 14th. this is a period of about, oh, 45 some odd days or so and you see the blue line here as we track the gas prices a year ago, and they

really got high toward the middle part of february. well take our slide rule here and put this in motion. the green line now is 2013. you see we're under it, right? right to the end of january, we're still under good ten, maybe 15 cents. to the 1st of february, see that mark? that is where the lines cross and watch where goose goes, up 11 or 12 cents over the average we were a year ago. like we said we have never seen it this high before at this time of year. so january and february now, setting new marks for the price of gasoline. we think about the economy, the effect on the economy, the drag it could have. look at gas prices. when prices go up, rarely do they go back down. when you start to pay a little more for everything you can tag it right there. martha: start to pay more for gas this time of year you wonder come may or june where it will be. a big question. we're just getting started on this thursday morning and we're hearing for the first

time from the couple that was taken hostage by suspected cop killer, christopher dorner. my, oh, my, wait until you hear the unbelievable story about what this couple went through and new details on the shootout that ended when that cabin went up in flames. bill: the fight looming over defense cuts that continues. the outgoing defense secretary lee leon panetta has a message for everyone involved but does he have any solutions. >> we can't sit here and bitch. we can't sit here and complain. we can't sit here and blame others.

martha: well the vatican has just come out and said that the pope actually, when he was on a trip to mexico last year hit his head. they're denying that that accident that we didn't know about before has played any role in the decision that he has made to step down but everyone will kind of take all the context around things that happened last few months and try to figure out what may have prompted

this decision. he said he would resign. that happened a couple days ago. the vatican said for the first time that the pope has a pacemaker. batteries were recently replaced. that is fairly standard practice for people with pacemakers. really all of this leads to what will happen next month as the conclave will get together to elect a new pope. and that will happen in mid-march. bill: there is new backlash after comments made by defense secretary leon panetta slamming congress over these looming defense cuts. >> often times i feel like i don't have a full partnership with my former colleagues on the hill in trying to do what's right for this country. i don't, you know, i don't pretend that we always make the right decisions. we make mistakes. but what i look for are members who are willing to work with us to try to work our way through some tough issues and be able to find solutions. we need to find solutions.

we can't just sit here and bitch. we can't just sit here and complain. we can't just sit here and blame others the we can't just sit here and point fingers at each other. we can't just sit here and try to get sound bites. we can't just sit here and try to make points, political points. we have got to solve real problems tasting this country. bill: that is one heck of an exit interview. some republican lawmakers the pentagon itself is partly to blame. jd gordon, former defense department spokesman for donald rumsfeld and robert gates. honor to have you on our program. >> honor to be here, bill. bill: what do you think about what he is making the point he is making? >> understand that he is frustrated but you know i think a lot of frustration should go back to the obama administration. it was the obama administration insist we have sequester if the debt super-committee failed to reach an agreement and they failed to reach an agreement. i remember very specifically at one of the presidential debates president obama told governor romney sequestration is not going

to happen. two weeks away and looks like it will happen. it will be devastating for the military. we're talking about curtailed military operations around the globe. reduced funding for mint nance and training. 800,000 dod citizens are looking for furlough or forced time without pay. this will be devastating and we're just getting started with sequestration. bill: the last point you just made a lot of people haven't talked about. 800,000 people coput on furlough for minimum of 22 days, three weeks. back to what panetta saying there, i look for members to work to us and can't sit here and complain. he used a different word. i use complain the is he talking about republicans or democrats as well? >> he is talking about both democrats and republican has have to come to an agreement to figure out how to solve this situation. getting back to the first point you're making i think the pentagon could have a done a better job with its

finances. these are very complex issues. bill: that's a big point there. >> yeah, absolutely. bill: what could it have done, jd? >> i think one. main issues we had a very large increase in the size of the military with 9/11, the iraq war, afghanistan war and with the budget control act from last year, we're already going to cut 100,000 ground troops but we really don't have an equivalent program to cut back on number of dod civilians. we need a drawdown via at operation over time. not just an across the board cut. not basically taking a month away from dod civilians that worked so hard to protect this country. we need a phased drawdown of dod civilians, not across the board cut. bill: i didn't mean to cut you off. go ahead. >> another big issue is acquisition reform. we have a lot of cost overruns for major programs but the reason we have cost overruns technology involved, some programs are so expensive. i guess the last point i would make on that, health care costs.

the military retiree population is like the civilian population. there are a large amount of baby boomers and that costs a lot of money and health care costs health care costs have gone up across the board for the whole country. those are three areas the pentagon could have done a better job managing costs. bill: you think panetta has the right to be frustrated but a the end of that clip he said we've got to solve real problems facing this country. in your opinion did he help solve those problems? >> he did to some extent but i think he is trying to place the blame squarely on congress when really the blame should be focused i think on the obama administration. the obama administration was supposed to lead on this and i think what they did, they just created this super-committee, super-committee to handle the debt. it wasn't able to come to an agreement. and so they thought the sequestration would be so painful that it would never happen. bill: would not happen. but everybody on capitol hill now saying expect it to happen. >> that's right. bill: on third of march 14

days away. jd gordon thank you from washington, d.c.. >> thanks, bill. bill: martha? martha: two major airlines are announcing a merger that would create the world's largest airline. so what would that mean for you that they're getting bigger, bigger, bigger? ticket prices up or down? bill: i got one guess there. martha: yeah. bill: there are new threats to block the president's pick to head the cia. senator rand paul says before he does anything he wants answers on the drone program. senator paul is here live to answer those questions. don't miss that still to come. [ woman ] my boyfriend and i were going on vacation, so i used my citi thankyou card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? and with all the points i've been earning, i was able to get us flight to our favorite climbing spot even on a holiday weekend.

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bill: okay. take this from the classroom to the courtroom. a graduate from the lehigh

university in pennsylvania suing her school over her grades. make fwan says the c plus she got three years ago kept her from getting a desired degree and prevented her from becoming a licensed therapist. a judge hearing testimony in that case this week. a judge is actually hearing testimony. the professor gave her the grade claims her lawsuit is without merit. she is suing for $1.3 million. martha: who are you going to sue? i'm thinking maybe the people that created the lsat. what the do you think? we could have made millions on that. all right, here is another story that is really big today. american airlines and us airways have struck a deal. they're agreeing to merge in an $11 billion plan to create the world's biggest airline. if this plan goes through the nation's top four carriers will be american, united, delta, and southwest. and they will control nearly

70% of the domestic market. casey stiegel joins me now at dfw international airport, one. biggest, biggest airports that exist. case sir, welcome this morning. what are some of the details of all of this? >> reporter: well, martha, good morning to you. this basically means the us airways we have come to know will slowly start to fade away if the deal goes through, much like we saw with continental airlines and northwest airlines when delta and united gobbled those up. this new airline will keep the american name. it will keep the american look and the current ceo of us airways will now run the giant airline and it will remain headquartered here in north texas, one of the largest employers. experts have said there could be a fairly substantial layoffs with us airways corporate offices in arizona with now moving to texas. we should point out even though both sides have approved this merger, a number of agencies still have to sign off on it like american's creditors for

example because american airlines is currently in bankruptcy and the u.s. department of transportation. so martha, this could take a year or longer before everything is finalized. martha: it is a big deal, a lot of paperwork to get through making that happen. so what does it mean for air travelers, casey? >> reporter: welling, of course that is the big question everyone wants the answer to. right now american does not have a very strong presence on the east coast and us airways does with hubs in cities like philadelphia and charlotte, for example. so this will translate into more options for the flying public in that part of the country. the bad news is that avery ages experts -- aviation ex-percent say this will ex-percent say this will mean hi7nlq [ male announcer ] how do you make america's favorite recipes?

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bill: for the first time we're hearing from this california couple that was kidnapped by a suspected cop

killer chris dorner. it happened only hours after dorner was suspected getting into a massive firefight with officers that only ended in the cabin he believed was hiding in went up in flames. william la jeunesse live with the story, l.a.p.d. headquarters in los angeles. first the couple, what happened with them, william? >> reporter: well, you know the search is over bill but the questions surrounding this manhunt are not. remember initially we were told a cleaning lady and her daughter who initially stumbled on dorner in in the vacant cabin. turn out it was the owners who did so. in fact they admitted last night they may have inadvertently left the cabin open allowing dorner to get inside last week. just two days ago, on tuesday, jim and karen reynolds showed up to clean that apartment for the next renter. dorner took them hostage. he bound their hands, he put towels in their mouth, put pillows over their head, before stealing their car. >> he came in like with a

cord and tied it. >> extension cords. >> tied it around -- >> put a pillowcase over her head first. went around the back and tied it real tight. wanted to clear his name. don't have a problem with you. i just want to clear my name. >> reporter: it took him about 15 minutes. they finally got loose and called 911 and the chase was on. bill, they say dorner was likely inside their apartment, if you will, the entire time within a stone's throw of that command center. bill: that is remarkable too. there is so many things that are remarkable about this. there is more information you're learning about when police had dorner cornered in the cabin. what happened then, william? >> yeah, well, the san bernardino county sheriff's office is coming under scrutiny and second-guessing for two questions. number one, basically they said they were only checking cabins that showed signs of forced entry.

that of course allowed them to overlook dorner in this one. now secondly, the orry begin of the fire in the cabin where dorner finally died. well last night the sheriff, john mcmahon, insisted the fire was not intentionally set but likely the by-product of a powerful tear gas canister known as a burner. >> i can tell you it was not on purpose. we did not intentionally burn down the cabin to get mr. dorner out. the tear gas canisters that we used, first off, we use ad presence when we showed up. secondly we use ad cold tear gas. then we used the next tier gas was that that was pyrotechnic. >> reporter: as far as that one million dollar reward, that is for information leading to the capture and conviction of dorner. that means owners or guy who got carjacked may not be eligible. that is under review. back to you. bill: a remarkable story. listen to the couple talk to you. william la jeunesse. back live with the story. martha has more on this now.

martha? martha: some tv analysis of christopher dorner's deadly rampage sparked new outrage after two cnn panelists seemed to sim pa thighs with the ex-company's motives for the shootings and compared it to hollywood movie. >> he is like real like superhero to many people. don't get me wrong. what he did was bad. when you read the manifesto he left. he wasn't entirely crazy. he had a plan or mission here. they are not rooting for him to kill innocent people. rooting for someone who was wronged to get revenge against the system. it is like watching jiang go unchanged in real life. this is almost exciting. >> narrative of christopher dorner, resembles a denzel washington movie where someone stands up for himself and he goes down in a blaze of glory. martha: kind of exciting. unbelievable. kind of exciting when you watch it.

doug schoen, former pollster for president bill clinton. monica crowley, good friends of this show and well-known fox news contributors. comparison to denzel washington, cheering on the shooter in this case, what do you think about that? >> i think these comments are so outrageous and totally inappropriate. they are comparing movies, fiction, to real life where there are real people dead and there are real families suffering here. this man, christopher dorner was a brutal, merciless unrepentant killer. comments like this do is glorify that. it is so fascinating they would take movies and try to draw a parallel to real-life horrors and real-life suffering. this is completely outrageous. martha: this guy killed in cold blood a 27-year-old woman who had nothing to do with whatever his perceived injustice against him are. his father was involved in one of his cases. her fiance now gone. two young police officers with young families murdered in cold blood as well.

listen to the piece of sound, a juxtaposition here. this is jena crane, wife of one of those lost. >> that is how he was with us. every day got better. every day we renewed our love, and i knew how much he loved me and how much he loved those babies. >> i knew a lot of people loved mike and i knew i would have support no matter what. but i really did not realize the sheer scale of this and how many people are touched by his life. martha: that is her husband, officer crane, who was, who was the police officer who was slain in all this. what does this say about that kind of discussion exists comparing to hollywood? >> i have to agree with monica. i would like to make a slightly different point, amplify monica's absolutely

correct assertions. we have legitimate vehicles in our society if you want to protest. if you have a manifesto, if you want to run for office, if you want to complain. the police department has ample protest facilities, governments do. there's any way of to protest. most good people know that. sometimes they don't work and sure there is corruption but bottom line, there is no way, no reason, no logical way to justify horrific, horrendous behavior that is an abomination. martha: no doubt that adam lanza, james holmes, all felt terribly wronged by society, right? >> right. martha: to listen to this discussion, you know, let's assume for a moment that this man, dorner, was right, okay? let's assume that he was right all along and they should have agreed, they should have understood his protestations about this other officer and this officer abused somebody, you can accept all of what he said and still nothing will

ever take away or make right what this man did killing these people to say, you know what? people are being brutalized out there he said. people are being brutalized by the l.a.p.d. according to the folks on the panel. if that is so, still there is no justification for these actions. >> you don't justify bad behavior with other bad behavior. doug is right, there are civilized processes in a civilized society to address grievances. martha: someone said, that you think that, but only place you can go is to the police and they're not going to help you. >> that is a worrying trend on the left for a long time, sort of against the police, against law enforcement. glorifying cop killers. we've seen this time and time again. not in every case but we've seen it in the past where you have radical elements on the left who believe that people who are fighting the power so to speak are the heroes. martha: standing up to power. standing up to authority. one more thought from doug.

>> bottom line, if you talk to an l.a.p.d. member he is going to say he lives in fear of the review process. certainly the case in new york city and other large metropolitan areas. bottom line, monica's right. this is an abomination and martha, there is no way to excuse this. those people ought to be ashamed of themselves. martha: doug, monica, thank you very much. >> thank you. martha: good talking to you today. a lot of strange stuff surrounding this story. bill? bill: 20 minutes before the hour now, a republican senator says he will block the president's nominee to head the cia. senator rand paul says he needs the answer to one question. that senator is live next to talk about it. martha: talk about a great vacation, right? these folks have been stranded at sea for days. today, they are almost home with some pretty horrific stories to share. we're live at the dock to welcome these folks home with open arms. >> she got a message to us that they was okay which i figured they was okay but still, i think they're going through the devil.

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martha: a security scare at new york's john f. kennedy airport and all because of kim kardashian and kanye west. we wish we were kidding about this but according to the tsa an airline employee allowed, kimye, when you put them together to bypass a security check point. go on through, to make their flight. would that happen to you? not likely. it violated several security protocols. prompted officials to privately screen them. it he do laid the flight about an hour. how ticked off would you be if you were waiting for the pair as a result of that. the rapper and reality star were eventually cleared to board. as you can imagine the passengers were not too happy about that. you know what i love about this? there is no video of it. these are people whose every moment of their life is videotaped. they brush their teeth and videotaped. for some reason when they make a plane wait for an hour there is no video of this event. bill: kimye?

martha: kimye. bill: i was thinking of martha/bill. a vote to confirm john brennan as cia director will not happen because my next guest needs the answer to one question. that senator, republican rand paul from kentucky. welcome to you. >> good morning. bill: what's the question? >> i would like to know if president obama claims or says or ascertificates he has the power to kill an american on american soil with a drone? and i would think the answer should be pretty easy. should be a very short answer. should be no. i can't man the president would assert the power to kill an american on american soil but john brennan was asked this question in his confirmmation hearing by senator wyden. he refused to answer it. he has been asked the question in writing. as of today we still have no answer. i can't imagine that president obama is going to assert the power to kill an american without a trial, without a judge, on american

soil. that to me is very, very troubling and really i can't let this nomination go forward until we get an answer. bill: my question for you, senator is, why could he not answer that? >> well, that's pretty worrisome because either a nonanswer implies that he thinks he really does have that power. and you have to realize that some of these drone killings we're doing overseas don't target an individual that is named. they have what is called a signature strike. if there is a line of cars coming from a place where we think bad guys live, we knock out the line of cars sometimes. do we really want that level of scrutiny to be for an american leaving a meeting of political radicals that are condemning something our government's doing in, let's say houston, texas? you know, really that is not the kind of country we live in. in our country we do want to punish bad people. if you want to be a terrorist in our country i do want you punished but i want you to be guilty before

we punish you. bill: senator, if he comes back to you, and says, yes, we do have that authority, what then? >> i think that's blatantly unconstitutional, blatantly violation of the fifth amendment and we'll fight tooth and nail to stop him from being in charge of any drone killing project if he thinks he can kill american citizens with no due process i think that is particularly scary. bill: senator feinstein is not far from what you're saying now. have you talked to her about this because she has objections over the same issue? >> you know, they're talking about some kind of judicial review. i think it needs to be a real court, not a fake court but a real court with a real judge and with a real jury. because you know we all want to punish bad people. i'm for punishing rapists and murderers. i really want them punished. the same with terrorists. but when you're in america you get accused of a crime you get a chance to present your day in court. we're not talking about people with a grenade launcher on their shoulder.

there has always been the ability to stop people who are in the process of committing violence, but brennan has also stated, president obama has stated it has to be an immediate threat, no has to be an imminent threat but doesn't have to be immediate. only a bunch lawyers could say it is something imminent is really the complete opposite. really i'm a little bit worried about this. bill: it would appear then, you're a no vote on brennan at the moment but you can't block him entirely? you would just about every republican right, and probably some democrats, somebody like senator feinstein. >> i can get in the way and i ultimately can demand it takes 60 votes for them to confirm passage and confirmation. but the bottom line is, my point, really about brennan, my point is about what is president obama's policy? does believe he has the power to kill an american on american soil with no trial? that to me is so offensive that everybody in america should know that that's the

president's position. if he won't answer the question, that is the president's position. so if we pass him, everybody in america needs toe know that president obama is asserting the authority to kill an american on american soil without a trial. or they need to answer the question, simply, no, they don't have that power but they need to answer it. bill: rand paul, thank you for your time. senator from kentucky, clearly with objections over this we'll see whether or not you get the right answers you're looking for. for our viewers at home, hemmer@foxnews.com also on twitter @billhemmer. we can talk about this or anything you want. bya, because you asked. you know where he is on this. he is in concrete on this. he is not budging. martha: so after $600 million in taxpayer money has already arguably been wasted on investments in green energy companies the white house, did you catch this part, they're now going to put 2 billion more of your taxpayer dollars into green energy programs. will they work?

is that a nice valentines gift for the taxpayer? ♪ .

bill: gatorade alert. that's a new one. freeway in los angeles here. fontana, california, actually. apparently a semi-truck carrying a load of gatorade has spilled its contents. all the traffic in the eastbound lane have been shut down except for the high speed lane. this is gatorade of a different kind of shower than you see an nfl coach getting after he wins the super bowl. now the gatorade's all over the freeway there.

soda cans included. there is a massive cleanup operation underway. martha: wonder if it is the red kind or the green kind or the blue kind or the g2 or what gatorade specifically? i am tradition all in everything. i like the green yellow one, traditional version. how about this story? you heard of sleep walking and sleep driving and sleep eating occurs in some cases. now there is a new phenomenon, sleep texting. while the results can be funny when you see what you wrote in the morning, doctors are warning this is really a serious matter. >> it is being invaded in away on their own with computers, cell phones, laptops, notebooks, tvs. it is highly disruptive to sleep. it is practicing -- fragmenting teenagers sleep time. martha: as one who knows it is affecting teenagers in a big way. keith ablow, a psychiatrist, a member of the fox news

medical a-team. good to see you this morning, doctor. >> good to see you, martha. martha: i shouldn't say this is affecting teenagers in a big way. we don't know how widespread it is. i know from first-hand experience these electronic devices are permeating every part of these kid's lives. doesn't surprise me in a total stupor of sleep, if they hear a buzz and grab it and start typing something back, you know? >> absolutely. the fact it is happening at all is concerning. i bet it is more widespread than people know. why? because teens are bringing these things into the bedroom with them. sometimes not enough to have it on the nightstand. they're holding it as they fall off to sleep. we know very well if you're partly awakened by something, that you can perform complex acts, driving, eating, sleep, sex. there is sleep sexing going on where inappropriate messages are being sent? martha: really? >> yeah really. and the lesson here i think

is that we need to build a wall so that we can keep technology away from the things that define us as healthy and human. martha: i mean, i could not agree with you more and, yeah, apparently there is some stuff that is inappropriate being texted in the middle of the night. i don't know if that is teenagers excuse after the fact they didn't know what they were writing but could be some element of that. really i'm so much more interested what you're getting at here, the sort of deeper thing how it permeating everything about their lives, teenagers, rest of us as well. i try to keep all electronic deis haves out of the room. everything on the first floor. if you use computer or home, got to be in kitchen or family room or anything else. because you don't want kids literally fallen asleep in their hand. i fallen asleep with my phone next to my head. when it goes off it wakes you up you can barely not look at it to respond to it. it is natural. >> living a virtual life is

incompatable with living a healthy true life. we need to accept this now and act on it. to the extent this technology and facebook and instant messaging starts inviting -- invading even your sleep, what we have is a drug. you wouldn't be very happy if we knew there was a drug kids are using even in their sleep they can't get away from it. that's what we've done. martha: dr. ablow, first floor technology in every house in america. keep it on the first floor. >> great campaign. martha: doesn't always work but i try. dr. keith, thank you so much. we'll see you soon. bill: goes with the wi-fi too. there is stunning news, the track star known as the "blade runner" is charged with murdering his girlfriend. why police think they may have a murder case and their answer to the rumors surrounding this story. >> we don't know what's happening. it's behind closed doors right now. i think by the end of today we'll start hearing more information, concrete information. bill: more about what happened in oscar pretori

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and learn more about the kinds of plans that will be here for you now -- and down the road. i have a lifetime of experience. so i know how important that is. martha: fox news alert. after four days in utterly unbearable conditions the 4,000 passengers and crew stranded aboard that crippled cruise ship are almost home. can you imagine? not soon enough for those folks. brand-new hour of "america's newsroom" starts now. i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. good morning, martha. morning at home. the carnival triumph has been everything but. adrift in the gulf of mexico when there was a fire in the engine room it left the ship with very little water or power and passengers say it's down right disgusting on board. set to arrive in mobile, alabama in a couple of hours from now. martha: they cannot wait. jonathan serrie joins us live from the port terminal in

mobile. what do we know about the conditions? we have been learning how gross it's been on the ship for the past several days. jonathan, what do we know now? >> reporter: we are getting an ear full from family members, a handful of them gathered outside the cruise terminal in mobile, alabama. some of them communicating by text message, others getting cellphone calls. one woman said she heard from her daughter on board the ship this morning saying that they had water, but it was discolored, it was brownish in color, that the food was cold and they had no access to toilets. another family member just received a text message from a passenger saying it smells like an out house. about these conditions carnival ceo has been apologetic. listen. >> let me assure you that no one here from carnival is happy about the conditions on board the ship, and we obviously are very, very sorry about what has taken place. there is no question that conditions on board the ship are very challenging.

>> reporter: now once they disembark carnival is giving passengers the option to overnight at hotels in new orleans and fly to houston tomorrow or board buses directly to galveston and houston, texas today, bill and martha. martha: a lot of questions, jonathan about what rights the passengers have in this situation to sort of fight back after it's all over. >> reporter: you know, that is a very good question, and we spoke with a maritime lawyer who says that the way these tickets are written, if you read the fine print, that these passengers really have very few rights. carnival is going to reimburse them for the full cost of this cruise, give them credit towards a future cruise and in addition to that give them $500, but this is something that carnival is doing as a business decision, not because it's under any obligation. we spoke with this maritime attorney who says that cruise lines face very little u.s. regulation because they are incorporated in small foreign

countries and their ships fly foreign flags. the triumph is registered in the bahamas, listen. >> these foreign-flagged cruise ships opted by foreign-incorporated companies that are essentially registering their operations overseas to avoid u.s. taxes. but who comes to their rescue when you have a ship like this that loses propulsion on the high seas? the u.s. coast guard. and who pays the u.s. coast guard? we all do as taxpayers. >> reporter: and that lawyer says he hopes that after all of the dust from this incident settles that there will be a congressional inquiry to prevent future incidents like this. he says they happen all too often in the cruise industry. bill and martha. martha: and the fine print gets you every time. no doubt anybody who gets on a ship to cross a body of water knows that there is some risk involved in that. jonathan we'll see how it works

out. thank you very much. bill: that ain't no love boat, is it on valentine's day. martha: no julie mccoy. bill: right on, skipper. friend and family of these passengers are waiting to hear all about this one. two mothers whose daughters are on board the crime -p, the triumph, they want to be there when their children get off that ship. >> i'm very worried. i want her home, i want to give her a big home, i want her in my arms and tell her everything will be okay. >> there is nothing that would have kept either one of us from this moment. both of those girls will walkoff that ship and they will see their mammas. >> reporter: their daughters are ages 12 and 10 and those two mothers, kim and mary they will be our guest live 10:30 eastern time and tell us what they are hearing about the girls. martha: hell hath no furry than the mom who is not happy with the conditions their daughters are living in.

this incident, of course as you can imagine is a pr nightmare for carnival crew lines. the company issued a profit holding to their shareholders, partly as a result the stock has plunged 5% on wednesday and the company is preparing for a rocky first quarter. they say they expect the total financial impact to reduce their earnings by 8 to 1 10-cents a share. bill: the stage is set for a fight over chuck hagel. senate democrats will hold a straight up or down vote on his confirmation friday in an attempt to break a republican filibuster, meaning that hagel will need 60 votes, five of them from republicans now, many of whom who threatened to block his confirmation. here is lindsey graham as to why republicans are not sold on hagel. >> the debate on chuck hagel is not over. it has not been serious, we don't have the information we need and i am going to fight the idea of jamming somebody through

until we get answers about what the president did personally when it came to the benghazi debacle. democrats had no problem doing that with bush and quite frankly they did the country a service by probing into failure. bill: what is going to happen now, bret baier is anchor of special ror. how d special report? how are you doing. >> reporter: good morning, bill. bill: harry reid is talking about this potentially on the floor of the senate. if there is news we'll bring it to our viewers. graham says the debate is not over, it has not been serious. what gives? >> reporter: a couple of things, one is confirmation hearings matter. this was not a good showing for chuck hagel in this confirmation hearing and despite the fact that you have other controversial cabinet nominees who have potentially bumpy confirmation hearings hagel's did not go well, and even folks on the democratic side will

acknowledge that, and that has made it even more difficult. then you have the additional problem, from his supporters' point of view, that there are calls for speeches that did not come out for the committee that hagel gave and they never received, and now you have one speech, for example, that a group says that they can get to the committee by friday. its already out of committee, but -- so now it's on the house floor. this vote happens, they need 60 votes. democrats have a 55-45 vote margin, they need five republicans. you have two republicans already, who say they will vote for hagel but you don't have any others. you have moderate republicans like susan collins saying she'll vote against him. they need to sway three other republicans. and you have senator john mccain,. jenna: roy blunt, they have said that they would not sign onto a

filibuster before but now they are being swayed by opponents of hagel, saying you need to stick with us. bill: reid is talk pweugt i. don't know italking about it. our producer on scene is saying reid is saying this is not h it's not football we are trying to confirm a secretary of defense. then he goes onto say this it's shocking my colleagues would leave the country without a secretary of defense. just reading this. bret, cabinet level nominees rarely require 60 votes to overcome a threatened filibuster. >> reporter: it's only happened three times. bill: what it says here is two in history so far have been required to clear a cloture vote of 60 votes. it's rare. >> reporter: very rare. i don't think it's happened ever for secretary of defense. i'll have to check that. it's very rare. and senator reid is on the floor berating republicans for doing this. yet u know, opponents say there are a number of substantive

reasons they are doing it, and so you're going to have this back and forth. will there be a backlash for republicans trying to prevent the president from filling out his national security team? you know -- bill: interesting point, yeah. >> reporter: you'll have to analyze that. bill: just one more question on that and i'll make it quick. it would appear now that reid doesn't have the votes, right. >> reporter: no. he doesn't. if you look at the head count he probably has 57, and so he's looking for three others, and, again, i point out john mccain, and roy blunt have said that they were not into signing onto a filibuster, but now they are getting pressured i think from opponents of hagel to sign on. harry reid talking right now need to find three other republicans to sign onto break this filibuster, otherwise really this hagel nomination goes down, and the president probably has to start over. bill: there will be some drama in the next 28, 30 hours store

so. thank you, good to see i. we'll see you at 6:00. bret baier with us there in washington. there is the senate majority leader on the floor. martha: a situation to watch on capitol hill today. we want to get you back to this big story today, a world-famous disabled olympian dubbed the blade runner has now been charged with killing his girlfriend. the south african is the first double amputee to ever compete in the olympics, earning his nickname for his carbon fiber legs. he is now the focus of a murder investigation. police say his girlfriend was shot and killed in his mansion in the early hours of this morning. a spokeswoman tells reporters that officers have responded to that home for disputes before, a lot more need to be filled in on that, but listen to this. >> there had previously been incidents at the home. i'm not going to elaborate on

it. [inaudible] martha: that is a little hard to hear. we are going to continue to keep on this and find out what we can tell you. coming up we'll speak with our criminal defense experts on what comes next in this investigation. we know that he was charged but then he was released on his own recognizance apparently. bill: we first heard about this at day break, we were told she went to his home to surprise him for valentine's day, he thought she was an intruder. the police came out and said we did not put that story out there, someone else did. martha: a beautiful young woman. we heard earlier this morning from her publicist who was clearly in shock, as is her family, she's done a lot of good work in south africa, a lot more on this shocking story coming up. bill: in the meantime back in our own country 16 trillion in national debt quickly moving to 17 trillion. the president has plans to spend billions of taxpayer dollars on more green energy.

so we ask you, is that the best use for your money? and has he ever won on that? martha: it's being called the sip -- there he goes, thirsty, i get thirsty, doesn't -frbg? questions how media responded to marco rubio. some say is this a career-ender for this man? is that going a little too far. >> it had been a long day at work we had already done an 18-minute recording in spanish and my mouth got dry, what can i say. i was happy overall with what we were able to deliver in the speech. [ whispering ] i've always preferred the crème part of an oreo. [ whispering ] that's crazy, the cookie's the best part. crème. cooe. crème. stop yelling.

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invested in have gone belly-up after taking nearly $600 million in taxpayers tax. steve haze from "the weekly standard," and a contribute -bt, goofox news contributor. we've given a lot of attention to solyndra and the others. it's somewhat surprising given that background and the history of these programs that the president would pursue this at a time when a lot of people are skeptical about his ways to secure the economy. >> yeah, well and as you say in the context of $16.5 trillion in debt i think that is a pretty significant amount. the interesting thing is, i think this demonstrates, like so many other things in the state of the union that the president is first and foremost an ideological program. he has a philosophical world view, he's progressive, he's to the left and he believes in doing this. he's not the practicing ma advertise that i think a lot of people thought he was when he ran in 2008. and this is something he believes in very strongly. i think we are likely to see him

continue to throw money at this. even though as you say you've had problems with so many of these green energy companies that have received government funding over the past four years. martha: let's take a look at some of these on the list. solyndra is a name that sort of became synonymous with this issue. there are others, though, and you can see, abound is on that list. as they come up a123 systems was sold to the chinese. beacon power also 45d had a lot of problems. i can imagine the administration would say any time you make these investments you're going to have some losses. it's the wins you want to be concerned with and whether the gains you make outweigh some of those that don't pan out. >> first of all we haven't seen many gains. we've had heritage foundation has put out a lifes 34 green energy k-pts i companies that have received this federal money in one way or another that have either failed completely or are in the process of going

bankrupt. that is a significant failure rate. its one thing i think to do that with private capital if you're making those kind of investments and have those kind of losses that,e that's fine. it's another thing to do it with taxpayer money with the deficit and situation we face. you could have people with all political stripes that favor green energy if broadly understood. the question is whether in this economic fir we're facing right now the fiscal picture of the country we should be taking those precious resources and channeling them toward green energy products that have demonstrated that they have not been market ready or workable. martha: you say market ready. in my mind that is the other huge question here. when there are start ups in america and there is a market for products you have analysts that cover these companies and say look this is a good investment, this isn't a good investment, is this the thing that the u.s. government is good at doing? >> right, exactly.

there have been examples there is a story in the "wall street journal" today about lg chem another company that makes car batteries, recipient of $142 million in federal government money, basically spent the third quarter with its employees doing nothing. they were paying its employees money derived at least in part from taxpayers to sit around and play games in the plant because they weren't sort of up to u.s. production scale. that is a huge problem. i mean, it's a problem no matter -- if we were running surpluses that is a problem. but it's a problem at a time when we are pinching every single penny in every other area. look at the kind of cuts we are talking about defense and discretionary programs and at the same time we are throwing an additional several billion dollars on green programs that have had problems over the hearsay. martha: thank you very much. steve haze good to see you. bill: here we negotiation just

like we were talking with bret a few moments ago. senior republican sources telling democrats they intend to mount a full-scale filibuster of the chuck hagel nomination and will block his nomination from receiving an up or down vote. chad pergram, capitol million producers also sold by another source that democrats do not have the 60 votes required to cut off the filibuster and move to a vote on hagel free as the friday as they expected. this is happening now as pan p leon panetta is saying his goodbyes at the pentagon. there is some drama on this. we'll follow this and get you more developments on that from the floor of the senate as soon as we get tpep them here. martha: this could get very interesting. harry reid says no one should leave this country without a secretary of defense. and leon panetta saying his goodbyes today. bill: you have hagel and john brennan hanging out there too. in the meantime their daughters were on board that cruise ship that is barely limping into port

today. two mothers wait to see their little girls. we will talk to the moms and get details about their ordeal. martha: i bet they can't wait to get their arms around those girls. a major costume change for the miss america pageant. hello, new jersey. ♪ [singing] there she is, miss america. there she is. ♪ ♪

martha: apparently miss america is coming home. the iconic pageant returning to its roots in atlanta city, new jersey. the contest was moved to las vegas in 2006 as part of a glitzy rebranding effort by the networks because it was dropped for low ratings. the pageant was founded in

atlanta city in 1921 and it remained there for the next 84 days. that's what you get for leaving new jersey, you know. come on home. bill: there are serious new concerns over the global economy. 17 countries in skwroerp have falleeurope have fallen deeper in their own recession with the worst economic performance in four years. greg palkot live in london. what is the story where you live, greg, how bad is it? >> reporter: with europe our biggest rating partners when they have problems we have problems. take a look at the number. overall in the euro zone the last quarter of 2012 compared to the quarter prior to that growth was down .6%. specifically of the countries hard hit by the debt crisis, italy and spain respectively, they were down point 9 and point 7% in the last quarter. france lagging along down .3%. saeufpl with the uk. most importantly germany down .6% considered the powerhouse economy of europe. they depend on exports to grow on win their export markets,

like european the united states are slowing down, they suffered too. needless to say the stock markets across europe down today as well. bill: you know, gregg, when we look at what is happening there, and we think about the impact on our own economy here at home, what are the prospects for the future there? what are they saying? >> reporter: not the greatest, bill. this is considered a double-dip recession. it is hard to get out of especially for the countries down here in the southern part of the continent. again, they are applying austerity, putting extra taxes on, you're seeing protests, a double whammy making it doubly hard to get out of of it. there is hope that germany might drive this economy out of the dole drums and there is a longer range hope that the u.s.-eu freed trade agreement which was mentioned by president obama's in tuesday night's state of the union address might help job wise on both sides. remember, $650 billion a year in trade on both sides of the atlantic, a two-way trade deals.

again that is a couple years down the road. bill: greg, thanks. hang in there. it's been a long road. greg palkot out of london today. martha: this story is shocking the country today. in 2012 he made history when he competed in the olympic days. today he has been charged in a murder. new details in the stunning says of this track champion accused of killing his girlfriend. bill: why would a first grade teacher be suspended after playing hide and seek with his students? that ace good question. is a good question. >> there are things that you can and can't do. reall really you can't do security off the cuff. have you to train and prepare for it. i'm tasting both the yogurt and the honey at the same time. i'm like digging this yogurt thing. i feel healthy. new honey bunches of oats greek.

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martha: the carnival cruise ship that is ironically named triumph, some might think of it more as a defeat at this point expected to limp to port this afternoon after the engine fire that happened on board knocked out a lot of the power to the ship back on sunday. firsthand accounts of this that have trickled out paint a really gross picture of what is going on that ship right now. i'm joined by two moms who just want to get their kids home. kim, whose ten-year-old stepdaughter is on the ship and husband, they are both passengers. and mary, whose 12-year-old daughter is on board. kim and mary welcome. good to have you both with us. i bet you're really glad that this day has finally arrived, kim. >> i will be glad when the ship pulls up to see my daughter, that is my daughter, not my

stepdaughter. thank yothank. martha: thank you for the clarification. >> she is on a cruise with her dad. martha: tell me, mary what the feedback is that you've got even from your daughter. >> i've only received one phone call from my daughter and that was on monday about 1, 1:30. when i got on the phone with her she was his tear i ca hysterical. crying, she was scared. she said mom i'm so scared i don't know what is going to happen. i don't know what i'm going to do. the last thing thee said to me which is the hardest of all was mommy, i'm so scared i won't ever get to see you again. as a parent there is nothing that rips at your heart more than that. and we lost the call shortly there after. she doesn't know i'm here. i need her to be home. i need to let her know that her momma is here. martha: as a mom i completely understand that all you want to

feel right now is your two girls just wrapped in your arms, give them a big, tight hug and let them know that they are home and they made it through this ordeal and thafrg is going to b that everything is going to be okay. that's a longtime. you have not spoken to her since monday. let me go back to kim. what has your interaction been with your daughter. >> the same time, about 1, 1:30 at monday. my daughter was calling me at the same time. i could hear rebecca talking to her rom. mom. high mother with this gut wrenching, i want to come home. come get me please, you know, i'm ready. martha: what was the origin of this whole trip? obviously they must have been so excited, mary about going on this trip. it was all going to be great, right? >> that was the plan. we had a text message on saturday they were having karaoke and having a blast, can't wait too see you.

>> there were photos po*elsed posted that my daughter took smiling ear to ear with their little carnival cards as they were getting on the ship. they were very excited to go skwraof cours. martha: of course they were. what do you think of carnival and the way they've handled this. what are your feelings on that? >> this is rebecca's six crews, i've been on five. carnival has always been very responsive to anything that we needed, food, or extra dessert, or extra bread, you know, whatever it was they've always been very good. i'm really very disappointed this time. i don't know the conditions on the ship. martha: i don't mean to jump on your words there we have a little delay. kim, what do you wish they had done differently? is there anything you think they could have done differently? there was an accident, there was a fire. what do you think? >> there was an accident, there was a fire, correct, i want to just thank the crew. i know they are doing their best

to keep the situation under control and keep everybody okay. i just wish they would open up the communication. with our technology today there should be no reason why we cannot have communication, something, anything, just some type of communication would be great, but we don't have it. i mean the phone rings, i look at it, is it her, no. it's horrible. martha: of course. i can just imagine. you know, i would be wondering, mary, and i know there was a reaction to this. why they won't bring another ship alongside and sort of, you know, hold the two ships together and get everybody off, or at least take some people off, those who needed to get off as quickly as possible. what is their explanation as to why they haven't done that? is it satisfactory to you? >> i had not been given any explanation. i don't know why i can't talk to my daughter. i feel like that somebody is trying to hide something from me. why? why can't she just pick up the phone and call me?

like kim said i understand, you know, accidents happen, i do, but communicate with me. i found out about this on facebook. that's how i found out. martha: wow. ladies -- >> farce them transferring the passengers from boat to boat, we were understanding that the waters have been so choppy and that would be such a high-risk, so i mean they are doing the best they can from what we hear to keep them safe. i don't know the conditions of what they are in. martha: are they going to offer you a discount on a future cruise and a refund, if they offer that will you be taking any cruises or sending your kids on cruises any time soon? stphreurfirst of all they are not offering kim and myself anything. they are on a cruise with their dads. as more myself i don't know. >> i think i'll stay on land for a while. martha: mary and kim maybe we can talk to you with your daughters when you get them off there.

good luck to you. i know it's a big day, the reunion you want so badly. thank you, ladies, take care. >> we would love to. yes. bill: there is shock throughout south africa this morning. the olympic star known as the blade runner could be facing murder charges. double amputee oscar pistorius is accused of killing his girlfriend. she was reportedly shot four times. witnesses saying that they heard shouting coming from the house hours before the shooting happened. a spokeswoman for the woman spoke about the shooting in a phone interview earlier today on fox. >> we are all in shock. this caught us totally unaware. we are shocked, devastated. we didn't see this coming, no one saw this coming. we don't know -- we don't know what is going on right now. bill: with me now is criminal defense attorney tamara holder and randy zellen is a former prosecutor. good morning to both of you. look, there is a lot we don't know, so we'll wait on the facts

until we get them, but tamara based on what has been reported so far what do we believe to be the facts as we know them now on this story. >> unfortunately there is not a lot out there, other than his model girlfriend, she had tweeted recently about her love of her boyfriend. she had tweeted about her excitement, about valentine's day. unfortunately there was recently a report that he had threatened to break her legs a couple of months ago. bill: who reported that, tamara? >> i believe the girlfriend reported it, and he did have an attorney involved an was never charged, but other than that there were no reports that he -- that there was any dysfunction in the relationship, in factory sent lee they were seen at an authenticate past weekend and she was quoted in the paper as him being a generous gift giver. all we know right now, bill are just reports here and there. bill: she was shot four times, is that -- we have that at the moment, right? i think at least two of bullets were to the head.

>> well, i heard that she was shot four times, one to the head and one to the arm, but again this is all preliminary, so what do we know? bill: also, there were reports, and randy i'll bring you in on this too, because when we woke up this morning we were told that this woman had gone to this -- her boyfriend's mansion, as it's described in petoria, south africa to surprise him on valentine's day and he thought she was an intruder. the police later came out and said they did not put that story out there. apparently there were either family members or neighbors or people in the area who heard something the night of the shooting, which would have been last evening, and also something around 3:00am when the shooting was reported. what more do you have on this. randy? >> well, certainly saturdayin starting with those two things you reported, those are very, very important from a prosecutor's perspective. people should keep their mouth shut. you've given me a preview into possible defense. i'm going to look for signs of

forced entry. he also lived in a highly secure tkpwaeulted community. gated communicate. so what is the likelihood that he was shooting an intruder. four shots to an intruder? how about you take one shot and run like hell. so you have the questionable nature of this self-defense? which would be -- that could be the reason why, you know, police pulled off earlier today and went back and said, look we're going to keep our mouths shut until the forensic evidence is completed at the home which will tell us a lot. i want our viewers to know one thing in case they are just waking up. this man was a national hero in south africa. he was born without a specific bone in the lower parlts o parts legs. at the age of eleven months he was a double amputee. he fought the olympic committee to participate in theee limb picks. in this past olympics in 2012 he won the right to compete. this guy is held up on the national stage down there. randy you were saying one more

thing. >> yes. and of course the police are going to look very closely at what was going on immediately before the shooting, whether there was yelling, whether there was screaming, whether there was some evidence of a fight. they are certainly going to look at the past between these two, whether or not there is a history of violence. because remember we have the act, every crime you need two components. actus reas and mens rea. we have two people in the house and the gun. now we have to figure out the guilty mind. this history of violence could be critical. the forensic evidence, the most important thing the police will look at is how close were they. they are going to look for powder burns, burns on mr. oscar pistorius and look close enough to see if there were burns on her as well. critical to this possible defense. bill: thank you randy for that i appreciate it. tamara thanks as well. we are waiting for more information. we'll hold off until then. thanks to both of you. martha: in the meantime back to

politics where some are making a very big deal over a tiny sip of some water. the exploding coverage over marco rubio's parched throat and how some are even asking if that drink from in a water bottle could be a potential career ender. a closer look at the mainstream media's coverage.

martha: there are new questions on the backlash from the senator marco rubio's sip of water. there he goes. leans over. it was a little too far out of reach. quick swig of the water bottle and back to his text. he did that of course during his republican response to the president's state of the union address. may be one of the few things anybody remembers about the night because that's the way things go. he had a similar people explanation. here he is on fox & friends yesterday. >> my mouth got dry and i had to get some water. when you give a speech you have a podium and the water is right

there. when you don't and you start looking around, where am i going to get the water from. i figure i'm better off taking that water and taking the hit for it than being unable to pronounce my words at the end of it. martha: tucker carlson editor of "the daily caller" and a fox news contributor. hey, tucker. of you guys at the daly carol did a bit of analysis to the reaction of this zero-dark-thirsty, watergate, it has all kind of names. >> like many americans i was stunned and horrified by this. i thought of him as a coke zero guy and there he was drinking water. it confirmed that america is falling apart. here is a guy drinking water on television this. was shocking to some other able news networks. msnbc ran this clip 150 times in one day. cnn ran it 33 times, 20 times in a single show, this on a day when north korea had just done its third nuclear test -- martha: you think that is a bigger tkaoepbbig bigger deal

than the water sip? >> of course. my priorities are completely out of whack. if you want to talk about what happened the night of the state of the union the president gave a speech for over an hour packed with policy decisions that we could analyze and try to plain instead of running a clip of a guy drinking water. martha: 155 times for msnbc. cnn22 times. 12 times on fox, i think we made it 13 pie running it again. there was serious discussion about whether this was a career ender. he looked funny for a second there, an awkward moment and they said, this may be it for him. >> you hate to think that a country would make important decisions based on criteria this stupid. rubio has views on immigration that are controversial even within the republican party. i'm not saying personally, it

might be worth debating those, right? he's said things that not everyone agrees w. and so i with. it seems totally within the bound, perhaps the duty of the news media to hold up those views, to analyze them, discuss them, explain what they mean and instead they are focused on something that is completely irrelevant and dumb. they devalue their own currency by doing this. martha: you look back at some of these post state of the union addresses, and bobby jindal had one that was less than stellar. has that had a last be affect on him and on his career do you think? >> it did. i don't think there is any question about it. whether or not it's fair is a separate question but there is no doubt about the fact that the performance that jindal gave, quite apart from what he said, just his physical appearance, walking at the beginning of the response, et cetera, was so harshly panned was so profoundly criticized that i think it hurt his ability to fund raise for a potential presidential run. this stuff does matter unfortunately skwraot visual

image. martha: the visual images tend to stay with people. we try to focus on what was said by marco rubio in his response and have a little none with the water thing as well but there's been a lot of backlash to it. thank you so much. >> happy valentine's. martha: happy valentine's to you and all your lovely ladies. i'll leave it out there. i believe it's his wife and his daughters. bill: jenna lee scrolling your way. jenna: i don't know if i can take you seriously now. a former american spy who snuck into iran in the bed of a pickup truck a few years ago tells us what he thinks iran is up to now, takes us through some of iran's latest moves. also there is a new proposal, did you hear about this. to expandess indicatio exexpand education programs for three and four-year-old. this is a good idea?

why now? how much will it cost taxpayers. we'll talk to the secretary of education about that and school security. finally on this valentine's day a truly heart-warming story of a newborn that had to stay a little cold for a few days, bill, but he's doing okay now. we'll tell you why. bill: that is great to hear. jenna lee coming up in ten minutes. it was supposed to be a playful game of hide and seek ended up giving children nightmares. the teacher involved said it was just a misunderstanding. the teacher was suspended. wait until you hear what happened after that. >> the teacher who, again, is the first person to volunteer for things, would be the first person to protect kids in a crisis, who made a bad decision. dentures are very different to real teeth.

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bill: on the new economy now the latest jobless numbers from the labor department. 341,000 jobless claims. that is a drop of 27,000 for the week and some suggest that government programs might be keeping unemployment rates higher than they should actually be. doug mcelway is on that story in washington. what are the concerns over a helping hand turning to dependence, doug. >> reporter: bill, that is a question that societies have wrestled with throughout ages. in the united states given over four years of unemployment hovering just over or under the 8% mark is wrestling with more than ever. talk to anybody seeking unemployment benefits these days. you'll hear some real heart-felt stories of hardship. >> people are crying being unemployed. it's not helping the economy at all. when people are working the country is happy. people make money, and the country makes money. >> reporter: talk to some small

business owners, and they'll tell you it's not unusual at all for people to quit work these days because they know they can get more from unemployment and other benefits than from hard work. >> i think some people are going to take advantage of it if it's there. i think the unemployment system is a system, and so the people who know how to a use the system best get the most out of it, not necessarily the people who need the assistance the most. >> reporter: americans are not working as much today and there is ample evidence that it's not just an economy struck in neutral but it may be the increasing government incentive not to work, bill. bill: governor mitt romney got into some trouble for suggesting pretty much the same thing, did he not? >> reporter: he sure did. and while he admitted that that statement was inch eloquent he did not deny that there is some truth in it. richard vetter, a economics professor at ohio university agrees with what romney said. >> we are in an increased

cultural dependence seat. people are substituting alternatives for work for work, yet our society built itself on hard work. >> it is not because people don't want to work. it is not because people would prefer to be on government programs. the hard-working, productive workers of this country want to work, it's just that the jobs aren't there. >> reporter: vetter says that dependency is manifested in four government programs, food stamps, social security disability benefits, extended unemployment and pell grants all of which have increased exponentially. bill: it certainly has. doug mcelway on the new economy out of washington. martha: we are awaiting the final chapter in the manhunt for the murder suspect excop. authorities expect to identify the charred remains of this christopher dorner. we'll be right back with more.

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